High Performers are Capitalizing on Data Monetization

May 3, 2018

By Farnaz Erfan

According to a recent McKinsey Global Survey on data and analytics, an increasing number of companies are leveraging data and analytics to generate new revenue. Of the 41 percent of respondents whose companies have begun to monetize data, a majority report beginning their efforts in just the past two years.

Although still in its early days, data monetization is already more prevalent in certain industries: more than half of respondents in basic materials and energy, financial services, and high-tech say their companies are monetizing data, and that these efforts are proving to be a source of competitive differentiation.

Most notably, data monetization correlates to an impact on business performance. Respondents at high-performing companies (with annual growth rates of 10% or more over the past 3 years) were more likely to say they are already monetizing data and are doing so in more ways, including adding new services to existing offerings, developing entirely new business models, and partnering with other companies in related industries to create pools of shared data.

Additionally, these high-performers see a top-line benefit: they are three times more likely to recognize that data monetization contributes to more than 20 percent to their company’s revenues.

McKinsey’s survey results match closely with findings from Forrester Research, which similarly found that top-performing companies are almost three times more likely to seize – new data monetization opportunities than those struggling to grow.*

As reported in a blog, Insights Services Drive Data Commercialization by Jennifer Belissent, Ph.D., Principal Analyst at Forrester posted March 8, 2017, a growing number of companies recognize the opportunity their data provides, with 1/3 of companies reporting that they commercialize data or share it for revenue with their partners or customers.